AS, an ancient weight, consisting of 12 ounces, identical with libra, the Roman pound. The word is common in the old Italic dialects, and may perhaps be connected with the Greek a*ç, which, in the Doric dialect, is used for ∈Γs, one, i.e., an entire thing; according to others it is derived from oes, because made of the mixed metal known under that name....

the son and successor of Abijam, king of Judah, began to reign in the year of the world 3049, and before Christ 955. He reigned forty-one years at Jerusalem, and did right in the sight of the Lord. He purged Jerusalem from the infamous practices attending the worship of idols; and he deprived his mother of her office and dignity of queen, because she erected an idol to Astarte, which he burnt in the valley of Hinnom, 1 Kings xv, 8, &c. The Scripture reproaches Asa with not destroying the high places, which, perhaps, he thought it politic to tolerate, to avoid the greater evil of idolatry. He carried into the house of the Lord the gold and silver vessels which his father Abijam had vowed to consecrate. He fortified several cities, and repaired others, encouraging his people to this labour while the kingdom was at peace; and the Lord favoured them with his protection. After this he levied three hundred thousand men in Judah, armed with shields and pikes; and two hundred and eighty thousand men in Benjamin, armed with shields and bows, all men of courage and valour. About this time, Zerah, king of Ethiopia, or rather of Cush, which is part of Arabia, marched against Asa with a million of foot, and three hundred chariots of war, and advanced as far as Mareshah. This probably happened in the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign, and in the year of the world 3064, 2 Chron. xv, 10. Asa advanced to meet Zerah, and encamped in the plain of Zephathah, or rather Zephatah, near Mareshah, and having prayed to the Lord, God struck the forces of Zerah with such a panic that they began to flee. Asa and his army pursued them to Geran, and slew of them a great number. After this, Asa’s army returned to Jerusalem, laden with booty. The prophet Azariah met them, and said, “Hear ye me, Asa, ...

ASAFOeTIDA, a gum-resin obtained principally from Narthex asafoetida, and probably also from one or two other closely allied species of umbelliferous plants. It is produced in the southern provinces of Persia, in Bokhara, and in Beloochistan, and the plant grows as far south as the Chenab Valley in the Panjab. Narthex asafoetida grows to a height of from 5 to 6 feet, and when the plant has attained the age of 4 years, it is ready for yielding asafoetida. The stems are cut down close to the root, and the juice flows out, at first of a milky appearance, but quickly setting into a solid resinous mass. Fresh incisions are made as long as the sap continues to flow, a period which varies according to the size and strength of the plant. A freshly-exposed surface of asafoetida has a translucent, pearly-white appearance, but it soon darkens in the air, and assumes a yellowish-brown colour. In taste it is acrid and bitter; but what peculiarly characterises it is the strong alliaceous odour it emits, from which it has obtained the name asafoetida, as well as its German name Teufels-dreck (devil’s dung). According to the analysis of Pelletier, asafoetida contains of resin, 65 Ό; soluble gum, 19∙4; bassorin, 11 *2; volatile oil, 3'6; and malate of calcium, 0 - 3 per hundred parts. The oil, to which its peculiar odour is entirely due, can be distilled off with water, and contains from 20 to 25 per cent, of sulphur. Asafoetida is found in commerce in “lump” or in il tear,” and it is always very much adulterated. It is chiefly carried from the various ports on the Persian Gulf to Bombay, and so powerful Ï3 the smell of the new resin that special vessels have to be employed in the trade. The whole plant is strongly impregnated with the odour of asafeetida; in the regions of ...

the son of Zeruiah, and brother of Joab. He was killed by Abner, in the battle of Gibeon, 2 Sam. ii, 18, 19, while he obstinately persisted in the pursuit of that general. To revenge his death, his brother Joab, some years after, treacherously killed Abner, who had come to wait on David at Hebron, in order to procure him to be acknowledged king by all Israel, 2 Sam. iii, 26, 27. See ABNER.

a celebrated musician in the time of David, was the son of Barachias of the tribe of Levi. Asaph, and also his descendants, presided over the musical band in the service of the temple. Several of the psalms, as the fiftieth, the seventy-third to the eighty-third, have the name of Asaph prefixed; but it is not certain whether the words or the music were composed by him. With regard to some of them, which were written during the Babylonish captivity, they cannot in any respect be ascribed to him. Perhaps they were written or set to music by his descendants, who bore his name, or by some of that class of musicians of which the family of Asaph was the head, 1 Chron. vi, 39; 2 Chron. xxix, 30; xxxv, 15; Neh. xii, 46. The psalms which bear the name of Asaph are doctrinal or preceptive: their style, though less sweet than that of David, is more vehement, and little inferior to the grandeur of Isaiah.

ASBESTOS, or Asbestus (from aσβeστo<i, unconsum∙ able), is a variety of the amphibole or hornblende family of minerals, and akin to tremolite, actinolite, and common hornblende. The chemical composition of the whole family is chiefly silica, magnesia, alumina, and ferrous oxide, but varies considerably. Those containing most iron are most easily fused. Asbestos consists of fine crystalline elastic fibres, with a silky lustre, varying in colour from white to grey and green, and derives its name from being specially indestructible by fire. A single fibre of it fuses to a white enamel, but in the mass it is capable of resisting ordinary flame, and has on this account been regarded from ancient times as a most interesting substance. Woven into cloth it forms a fireproof texture, which, to be purified, requires only to be thrown in the fire; gloves, napery, towels, handkerchiefs, and even dresses have been woven of it; and it is said that the ancients used to wrap the bodies of their dead in asbestos cloth to keep their ashes separate from those of the surrounding funeral pile. There are several varieties of asbestos :—(1.) Amianthus is the rarest and most delicate kind, its fibres being beautifully white, flexible, long, and regularly laid. It is found in the centre of the older crystalline rocks, in the Pyrenees, the Alps of Dauphiny, on Mount St Gotthard, in North America, in the serpentine of Sweden, in the Ural Mountains, Silesia, and New South Wales. But the most beautiful specimens come from Tarantaise, in Savoy, and from Corsica, where it is somewhat abundant (2.) Common Asbestos is not so light, either in colour or weight, as amianthus, and is more splintery, inflexible, and irregular in structure. It fuses with difficulty before the blow-pipe into a black ...